language development

I walked in the door yesterday and Iris ran toward me screaming gleefully, "Fuck and damnit!"

Sorry, grandparents.

After seeing my reaction (laughter and surprise), she said it again. And then she said, "Daddy said it." Evan had been working at the dining room table earlier that day and something hadn't been going so well. He didn't know that Iris was in the kitchen at the time...

Oops.

We're trying to completely ignore her now when she says it. Occasionally, Evan will say, "fork?" and she'll shake her head no. I think we just have to hope that she'll stop saying it after we don't respond for a while.

Iris has been parroting everything we say for a while, which is a lot of fun. It obviously has its drawbacks. One of the words she began parroting quite early on was "echo" as in echocardiogram.

We had a checkup with the cardiology team a week ago Friday. In the past she had been doing well with getting the echo. They take us into a dark room and Iris lies down on a bed and can watch cartoons while they put goop on her chest and use their ultrasound wand to get the images they need.

This time she wasn't interested in lying down and being still. I had to lie down with her in a very awkward position to have any chance of success. The first echo guy was mostly successful in getting all the images...except for the one that they really, really needed, which was the image of the dilation of the ascending aorta. So we had to try again with another echo gal. She also had a hard time getting it. Finally, a third lady came in and was able to get it very quickly. Phew.

The news is -- everything looks exactly the same. Her dilation is 21 mm, if I remember correctly. So we will go back in four months for another checkup. We were supposed to see our pulmonary specialist but she had to cancel, so the next specialist visit will be with ophtalmology in March. The pulmonary specialist will catch up with us then.

Although Iris didn't do so well with the echo, she did much better with this month's Synagis shot. We have been reading Elmo goes to the doctor a lot.

So on the day we were supposed to get the shot, I mentioned to her that we were going to go to the doctor for her shot. I haven't normally done this in the past, and I'm not sure it was the greatest idea. She sort of moaned/wailed, "No...." And then I reminded her that it would only hurt for a minute and that Elmo had to get a shot, too. I also told her we could get a sticker.

She basically objected to every part of the pre-shot stuff at the doctor's office. But she didn't cry, she just sort of whined, "No..." She finally started crying when the nurse brought the shots in.

The nurse let me hold Iris in my lap. It was awful, as always, but the thing that really saved the day was that I brought this little computer that my mom bought for Iris a long time ago. We barely ever let Iris see it much less play with it, so she was hooked right away.

I kept telling her what a good job she did and that Elmo had to get a shot, too. I taught her to say, "I got a shot." Except it comes out, "I got shot!"  

So...we're in a very awkward stage of language development. 

twenty-two months

Iris is finally starting to sleep better in her big-girl bed. Around the beginning of the new year I bragged that she was starting to sleep throught the night, "for real." Well, that didn't last too long. Especially since we changed her bed around on her. She loves her bed, but it's hard for her to stay asleep sometimes. We've tried to make her bedtime routine very, very predictable and I've gone back to the idea that she still needs milk around 9:30pm or 10:00pm in order for me to have a semi-restful night. Evan is the one who usually gets her ready for bed, brushes her teeth, washes her face, and reads to her before giving her milk. Tonight as I was leaving her room she said, "Daddy, come!"

When not asleep, Iris prefers to run everywhere she goes. She has also managed to get a couple time outs for jumping around dangerously on the couch. At twenty-two months old, she repeats everything we say (for better or worse) and she is really starting to perfect the tantrum. Her latest obsession is my brush. She threw a little fit this morning when I tried to give her a comb instead of the brush. SHe likes to try to comb her hair by herself, but that just lends to the unruliness that is her hair. 

We have been working on our yoga moves -- the latest attempt is tree pose. She can balance on one foot for just a split second. She really loves to do happy baby pose. In order to get into the pose she kneels down on the ground, puts her head to the gorund first (so that she won't bang her head when turning over) and then turns her body around so that she is on her back. Then when she has a hold of her feet, she yells, "Happy Baby!" 

Twenty-two months old

Balancing on one foot

The weather here has been a little insane. We woke up to snow this morning (Wednesday) after having had several days in the 60s. The good weather inspired Evan to plan a super busy weekend full of hiking, bike riding, and an attempted swimming trip. Iris did really well on the hike, possibly because I was trying to feed her for the entire 3-mile trip. Evan also started singing a song to her that seemed to keep her entertained. The words went something like, "Hiking, and mommy, and trees, and sandwich, and birds, and mommy, and hiking, and backpack, and Iris." He also had so much energy that he was running back and forth with her when she started to ask to be let out for a little while. He would bounce up and down with his arms out like wings. She loved it.

Backpack walk

Roxborough State Park

I mentioned previously that I had gotten a glass flying pig from a mystery person at work. Well, this same person (I assume) sent another little gift a week or so ago. I'm not sure what to call it, so we just call it "This Guy." Iris calls him "This Guy" now, too.

This Guy

Hugging This Guy

The handwriting of the mystery gift person

As far as medical things go, we see Cardiology on Friday. Iris will have an echo and we hope to see no increased dilation in her aorta, and continued lack of pulmonary hypertension. She is now on her full dose of losartan (when we can manage to remember to give it to her). It looks like we will be starting Iris in day care in March, which Evan and I are both excited about...though there are many logistics to be worked out. Evan still hasn't actually seen the day care yet, so we'll visit it on Friday before the Cardiology appointment. 

Then, next week I'll likely take her to the pediatrician to get her second to last dose of Synagis, which is the semi-vaccine for RSV. It's way worse than all the other vaccines -- way more of it, and it's two big shots that go into each thigh. Iris has been asking about shots a lot lately. We've been reading "Elmo Visits the Doctor" book a lot and I think she's going to handle the next round of shots okay... but they're still awful. But I'd rather subject her to the trauma of getting the shot than to the trauma of being hospitalized for a severe case of RSV. And let's just leave the whole talk of measles for another time. 

At twenty-to months, Iris's favorite things are her stuffed animal bears, looking for buses when we go outside or are in the car, singing "Wheels on the Bus," and saying "Call Daddy" to get me to call Evan on the phone.